How can places mobilize the body's own healing processes? How do we optimize healing? In her latest book Healing Spaces, Esther Sternberg, an internationally recognized medical researcher, explores the interplay between humans and their surroundings in general, and the health aspects of architecture in particular.

Most people have experienced the salutary effects of a pleasant view or a peaceful garden, but few understand where they originate from. Do places really have an impact on the chemistry of our minds? How do senses, emotions and the immune system respond to the environments we inhabit? Sternberg takes us on an engaging journey through the research that has cropped up in this area of inquiry. The many vivid examples of the fascinating relations between architecture and the neurobiology of the senses make it very difficult to miss the point.

The first half of the book deals with our physiological methods of perception, i.e. the senses and their operations. Sternberg explores which environmental qualities provoke stress in the nervous system, which instill a sense of calm, which trigger feelings of stress and fear. Way-finding, the role played by memory in perceiving environment, and the healing power of "miraculous" places are other central themes covered in Healing Spaces.

The latter part of the book is devoted to the design of hospitals. It is interesting how an institution whose main purpose is to provide healthcare to sick people can be experienced as such a frightening and inhumane place as it often is. It is, however, no longer surprising after having read about the history of hospitals. The well-founded effort to eliminate infectious diseases in the nineteenth century led to the sterility and barrenness that characterize many hospital environments today. Nevertheless, health in humans consists of more than keeping infections away. Sternberg considers the concept of 'stress' and how it relates to Western culture. As she learned in her meeting with Dalai Lama, there is no Tibetan word for 'stress'. The purpose of meditation, as Dalai Lama understands it, is to cultivate universal compassion. In Western society, however, meditation is often understood as a means to reduce stress, rather than a way to enhance positive emotions. In order to promote health we might have to start thinking about hospitals differently. Sternberg offers the reader numerous examples of how research has shown that various design alterations in hospitals affect the health and recovery of inpatients.

Healing Spaces takes us through twelve chapters in which themes such as perception, architecture, healing, hormones and hospitals are interrelated. It is simply a beautiful book, written much like a renaissance city is built; reading it is like visiting one. You follow some narrow, winding street that eventually opens out on to an illuminated square, and you find something interesting in every nook and cranny. You can enjoy the wandering about, or you can head for the sights. The combination of captivating details and thought-proving landmarks makes this book truly invigorating; there is no need to stress through it, because there is no goal to reach. The most important part of Healing Spaces is everywhere: an enlightening perspective on the power of place. Sternberg's writing is flavorful, nuanced, informative and evocative, and it is a fine example of how the intricate relations between science and intuition, mind and body, and inner and outer environments can be revealed.

At the heart of Healing Spaces is a deep personally felt and scientifically based conviction that space matters, and it matters more than we have previously thought. Anyone interested in health, psychology, architecture or neuroscience would benefit from reading this book in order to find out aspects of your surroundings that you haven't been cognizant of. There is so much more to perception than meets the eye.

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